a I B I^AFLY OF THE UN IVLRSITY or ILLINOIS B H9755r cop. 5 ilL'NOIS HISTORY SU/iVtr Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Channpaign http://archive.org/details/portraitofannericOOradd Portrait of an AMERICAN LABOR LEADER: William L. Hutcheson William Levi Hutcheson SAGA OF THE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA 1881-1954 Portrait of an AMERICAN LABOR LEADER: William L. Hutcheson by Maxwell C. Raddock AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, INC. NEW YORK Copyright 1955, by Maxwell C. Raddock All Rights Reserved Printed by World Wide Press Syndicate, Yonkers, N. Y. Designed by Lawrence S. Kamp FIRST EDITION >5Y ■75 To Lillian, Richard, Carole, Franklin and Bruce PREVIEW TO UNDERSTANDING The subject of this book is the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Its activity fundamentally directed toward the economic betterment of its members, the U.B. of G. has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis in the seventy-four years of its uninterrupted existence. Growing steadily in size and power, it has in a large sense affected our economic life. That it has raised the living standards of the individual members, among other things, is a well-known fact as our story will attest. The main object of this work is to inquire into the life, work, per- sonality and character of William Levi Hutcheson — one of America's a-typical labor leaders to have emerged on the American scene in the past forty years. His story is part of a larger inquiry into the social, eco- nomic, organizational and political history of America, covering a period of eight decades. Actually, the Brotherhood is here viewed as a case study of that striking movement in modem Hfe which historians have described as the "organizational revolution". The Labor movement is part of it, as are the farm, professional and other voluntary economic groups. As part of the labor movement with 835,000 members, the U.B. of G. is a vital and salutary economic and political force in our democracy. Along with the rise in the power of voluntary economic organizations, there has also been a great rise in the economic power of the national state. This movement is evident in its most extreme and malignant form in the Gommunist states, where the state virtually becomes the only economic organization, all other organizations being subordinate to the oligarchic state. Even in our own country, we have seen the national state assuming more and more economic responsibility, through the sponsorship of social security schemes, direct governmental aid to depressed industries, protective tariffs, the governmental regulation of industry and labor, and the trend to nationalized industry — the T.V.A., for example. It is in this sense, I might point out, that a voluntary economic or- ganization, such as the Brotherhood became a dependable bulwark against the drift toward totalitarianism under Hutcheson's stewardship. William L. Hutcheson saw this basic struggle more clearly than some of VII VIII PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER the labor leadership of today — that keeps demanding more govern- mental intervention without telling us how, at the same time, to avert resultant totalitarianism. Much of our basic thinking still assumes a system which is composed of many small units. Even today, of course, many segments of our economic system — e.g., retailing, the service trades, agriculture — are still in the hands of small-scale units but are not somehow affected directly by the existing large economic organizations. Nevertheless, the rise of the labor movement (or other similar economic organizations) has pro- foundly affected our economic system — for the better, to be sure. A system which is affected by large economic organizations presents prob- lems, both for economic policy on the part of the government and for standards of economic morality on the part of business, which are dif- ferent from those of an unorganized society. It is doubtful whether our thinking in these matters has caught up with the changes that have taken place in our system, and we are in real danger of accepting principles, beliefs, nostrums and panaceas which were applicable to an earlier less complex system, but which do not really apply to the present * * "jf These preliminary but necessary observations out of the way, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, as I have stated, is here viewed as a case study of a large economic organization — the labor movement — operating during the second half of the twentieth century — the crucial era of makeshift and totalitarian panaceas. It is important, therefore, to understand something of the causes underlying this carpenters' movement if our attempt to shed light on the problems which it faced is to bear any fruit. What, indeed, first brought men like the members of the U.B. of G. together into that compact movement or union now 835,000 strong? Is the rise and growth of an economic organization such as the Carpenters the result of a more deeply felt need for it on the part of those who participate in it, or is it a result of an improvement in the technique of organization which makes it easier to develop and then to supply that "need" ? Both these elements undoubtedly played some part in the growth of the Brotherhood. The obvious answer is that the U. B. of C. produced such results as advancing its members socially and economically. Economic betterment of its members was by no means a negligible factor in explaining the attraction of the Brotherhood. There was a desire, too, for human status. The Carpenters' records point up these factors. Much of the drive which leads people to join labor unions is the desire to be able to look the boss squarely in the eye — an equal ! — in addition to winning a fair wage for work done. PREVIEW TO UNDERSTANDING IX That there has been an intensification of these needs for organization in every industry during the past seventy years is certain. It is the logic of democratic society that impHes dissatisfaction with any subordinate status. The labor movement especially has been regarded as an instru- ment for the rise of the "lower" groups as a whole. The emergence of numerically large, cohesive unions like the Brotherhood was of course the counteraction of labor to the concentration of control over capital and our economic resources. This came about in the second decade of our century. The U. B. of C. is thus a symbol of labor's reaction to the growth of giant corporations. What is the organizational structure of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America? What were the unfavorable influ- ences to which it was subjected, technological, social, legal, governmental, political? What were the challenges it had to face? What type of leadership did it produce in the course of nearly eight decades of its turbulent existence? Admittedly, the external environment often involves direct conflict with other organizations, and the fewer the number of competing organi- zations, the more acute that conflict becomes. Prudent leadership in human relations has in recent years done much to attenuate jurisdictional strife. A case in point is the recent "peace-pact" between the Carpenters' Brotherhood and the International Association of Machinists, which was brought about by Maurice A. Hutcheson, Al Hayes and co-ofHcers of both labor organizations. Union leaders are acutely sensitive to their constituencies and are generally in grave danger of losing their jobs if they do not fulfill their promise. Union constituencies are universally called upon to ratify their decisions, and not infrequently repudiate them. In other words, if a union leader does not "come through" — his career is short-lived. To an examination of these apd other phases of the Brotherhood's work and that of its leadership I shall revert in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book is a biography and an interpretation of the work, ideas and views of William Levi Hutcheson, the labor leader, the political catalyst, the human relations technician — in short, his personality. Re- lated to the life and times of Hutcheson is the grim but highly dramatic chapter of labor's unconcealed bid for the gradual, increasing recognition and acceptance of its leaders and trade unions. It was part of a challenge to the American businessman and industrialist who achieved the most dominant position in the community, with labor always trailing far behind. Here was a "marginal" job to be done, and who but the "socially penalized" would do it! Hutcheson, the son of a migrant, wandering worker, was "stimu- lated," — to borrow a favorite phrase from historian Arnold J. Toynbee — X PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER into the General Presidency of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America at a time when labor's gains, moderate as these were then, gave way to the old law of supply and demand. And the supply of labor ran ahead of the demand, with the still heavy flow of helpless, impoverished and destitute immigrants who were accustomed to little and were indeed willing to work for just that. Bom on the frontiers of Michigan, he was conditioned to a tough, hardy existence. Himself a "marginal" job seeker until the age of twenty-eight, and sub- jected to "penalization", he was prepared to challenge businessman and industrialist aHke. He even matched powers with our reformer First World War President Woodrow Wilson, of whom he was no mean admirer. Recognition and status for his constituents was all he sought. It was his first trial battle, out of which he emerged the victor. Soon a period of disillusionment and frustration followed, and in- variably those experiences shifted his loyalties as well as intensified his aggressiveness. It was much later that this penalized labor leader sought to overcome his "social handicaps" by joining the Masons, Odd Fellows and other associations which occupy a very significant and increasingly strategic position in our total social structure. There were, of course, others of that generation: John L. Lewis, Sidney Hillman, to cite two outstanding examples, who, like Hutcheson, sprang from the same "socially penalized" part of the population. This is clearly brought to our attention by Saul Alinsky and Matthew Joseph- son, recent biographers of Lewis and Hillman, respectively. All three were dominant personahties, "other-directed," consumption- minded leaders, militant in their attitudes. All three served the constitu- encies of their respective unions — the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, United Mine Workers of America and Amal- gamated Clothing Workers of America — for more terms than is nor- mally permissable, lest they be assailed with the opprobrium of autocrat. All were delegated great power, with fewer controls than might seem desirable in less intense times. All grew up in an atmosphere of struggle and conflict. But during that period of "organizational revolution," unions perforce became imperium in imperio, a state within a state, agen- cies of conflict. And, as in the national state at war, intense loyalty of the union members, backed by a highly centraUzed structure in the union itself, becomes a necessary pre-condition for survivaL It is only when the unions and their leaders achieve recognition and have established their position vis-a-vis both the employers and society at large, that more democratic standards have a better chance of coming into their own. In the case of all three, their long tenure in office was simply the result of PREVIEW TO UNDERSTANDING XI the leader's achievement for the rank and file and of an identity of men- tal processes between the leaders and the led.* Yet comparatively few of the labor leaders were the subject of con- troversy and an ambivalence of feeling as was Hutcheson. But because he was controversial, the author has tried to understand him by tracing all the influences and conditionings of his early life and the ^eitgest upon him. I have tried to relate his personality and the experiences of his youth to the development of the labor movement. A socio-psycholog- ical approach may help us, I felt, trace associations in our protaganist's thoughts that might otherwise have escaped us. I knew William Levi Hutcheson well. I first met him some twenty years ago, when I served my journalistic apprenticeship under the guid- ance of Abraham Cahan, best known as the author of "Rise of David Levinsky", and one of the most distinguished daily newspaper editors in the country during the whole span of labor's rise. Here, I thought, is an extraordinary, vital man, with a flavor all his own. Strikingly different too from other labor leaders of his day and different, too, from the im- pression that some writers and publicists passed on to the American pub- lic mind for a quarter of a century. Bible-quoting, acid at times, eloquent and witty, he registered sharply. For a time I toyed with the idea of doing a book on Hutcheson, but it wasn't until 1953 that I found the time to begin it. When I got started, the difficulty of the task became apparent to me. This difficulty lay in the nature of the evidence about him. In the first place, it was curiously scanty, and what there was — was uniformly repetitive. For once a suspicion arose in my mind that the motivation may not have been entirely that of the objective reporter, or historian, preoccupied exclusively with an objective recital of the facts. He himself had been somewhat reticent, unwilling to be interviewed or written about, although on frequent occasions he would talk to the writer into the early mornings after convention proceedings were over. This reticence is characteristic of his son Maurice, the General President of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a gentle, soft-spoken and self-effacing man, who, although within the ranks of labor since the age of 14, does not conform to the generally accepted stereotype of a labor leader. Moreover, most labor reporting during the first quarter of the current century was permeated with a strong emotional coloring derived mainly from a well-established scale of moral values. With few exceptions, the labor movement and its leaders were always pelted with a good deal of dust and pebbles, quarried from faulty facts, faulty logic and faulty iFor a more detailed analysis, see Professor Wright Millis' The Men of Power: America's Labor Leaders (Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1948), Chapter III. XII PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER Statistics. The writers knew what they liked, to be sure. But what they didn't like was labor and labor leaders. They had no hesitation in giving their work a persuasive tone, and some of our contemporary labor chroniclers seem to relish their targets. There were tales and anecdotes in profusion. Most of them of questionable veracity. Finally, what evi- dence had accumulated about William L. Hutcheson was strikingly one- sided and even derogatory. Accounts of him, written and oral, by those who had been his co-workers and close associates in the American Federation of Labor were often revealing, but I could hardly take them at face value. I wanted to keep an open mind. On the other side were a number of books such as Bruce Minton's and John Stuart's Men Who Lead Labor, Edward Levinson's Labor on the March, Herbert Harris' American Labor, Charles A. Madison's American Labor Leaders, Harold Seidman's Labor Czars, and others. These seemed to me wholly unreliable as to the Hutcheson story per se and as to his total impact upon the American social scene. They had apparently been writ- ten on the assumption that if a labor leader became a Republican, op- posed a blank check for "industrial unionism", and served long tenure in office, the duty of the labor historian was to ascribe it to any one of five evil motives, brushing aside all available evidence that pointed to the laudable intentions and lasting achievements of the subject. William Hutcheson was a Repubhcan, but his Republicanism was lo- cated in the heart of America where "the Protestant traditions are still alive and memories of the past are household words." Actually, his Re- publicanism "was in keeping with the Lincoln-Roosevelt traditions."^ That he was no patron saint of financial success nor a devotee of the strong and the smug, will be amply documented elsewhere in this book. Similarly, Hutcheson did not oppose the organization of mass-production industries in the 'thirties. As a keen student of labor and its dynamics, he knew full well that mass unionism was a reflection of the rise of a growing populous stratum of permanent industrial workers — fathers and sons. He also knew that in the English-speaking countries the organiza- tion of specialized trades, or crafts, has fitted in ideally — and this in the light of American labor's own experience — with the American social structure. What Hutcheson opposed was the industrial catch-all, one big union, a conglomeration of craftsmen and the unskilled. That he was confirmed in this approach is attested to by the fact that the A. F. of L., whose very existence was challenged two decades ago, is now greatly bolstered, both morally and organically to formulate a basis for peace with its once rival, the CIO. Had these publicists, textbook writers and historians employed their 2Andre Siegfried, America Comes of Age (Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1927), p. 278. PREVIEW TO UNDERSTANDING XIII technical proficiency in which they are presumably grounded, they would have presented an array of historically verified and verifiable facts rather than relied on legend and embroidered gossip. What concerns us here no less is to record the fact that such senti- ments and perversions of fact, often accompanied by diatribes have been "transferred" unto the second generation of labor leaders. That there still persists such a marked tendency and paralyzing attitude among some of the present-day reporters of the labor scene, occasions no small concern to labor, its leaders and the interested public. Greater discern- ment and objective reporting would reveal that since his ascendancy to the office of the presidency of the U. B. in January, 1952, Maurice A. Hutcheson, the son of William L. Hutcheson, has in that relatively short time proven to be a stabilizing influence inside the labor movement and indirectly, on the conduct of our economic affairs. He has taken measures to rectify defects in the machinery, which more often than not intensified rather than checked oft-lamented jurisdictional and industrial strife. There is mounting evidence of his advanced social outlook, reveaUng a growing awareness of the interlocking interests between the labor standards of workers in the U.S., Canada, and every part of the free world. His role on the International Development Advisory Board under Foreign Operations Director Harold E. Stassen, in itself represents a major departure from the confining poUcy advocated by leaders of American labor throughout every period of economic crisis. Propaganda disguised as history is of course not conducive to the clarification of socially significant issues, with which the above-mentioned writers claim to be concerned. Historical objectivity has no friends in a garrison state, or in any spiritually totalitarian regime. Fortunately, however, it is not a heresy in our democracy. I believe that it ought to be possible to tell the truth about an important creative personality, whether he be a labor leader or master of capital, or a poHtician, without being wholly swayed for or against him. I believe especially that it would be a disservice to American history and the dynamic movement of labor, if I were to depict men of varying social, economic and political ideas as conflicts between saints and sinners. Common sense dictates that men are not, and should not be thus compartmented or pigeonholed. I have therefore tried, to the best of my ability, to remain scientifically objective, which of course in itself constitutes a moral judgment. To me, Hutcheson represented a trend in social and human affairs that helped neutralize the ever-increasing powers of the new Leviathan state. He believed, as I do, that a healthy American society must seek to achieve the greatest possible equilibrium of power, the greatest possible social check upon the administration of power. "Power must XIV PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER be weighed out ounce by ounce," Sam Rutherford aptly said. And the labor movement in America constitutes such a repository of power in the community. Knowing him as I did, I am also convinced that he was a man great in character and force, whose immense influence was in most respects beneficent ; that he and his successor and their co-workers unfalteringly advanced the welfare of the workers will be demonstrated with facts and figures. What I have tried to do, therefore, has been to show what sort of a man he really was ; how his ideas developed out of his Scotch-Irish — New England background; his conditioning on the then "Northwestern frontier" ; the ideas, personalities and experiences he was exposed to during his early manhood ; and how he was influenced by the general stream of events in American history. As to the facts in this book, I have been scrupulously careful — rejecting unverifiable legends, unsubstantiated tales of his life and work. As to the interpretation of Hutcheson's motives and ideas and actions, that is entirely my own. I did not allow much of the interpretation of others to get in the way of my direct access to the primary sources themselves. While I have talked with Hutcheson frequently and in- timately, additional time has passed since work began, to afford me an added measure of detachment and objectivity. William L. Hutcheson's extensive personal files and correspondence, extending over a period of forty years, have been at my disposal through- out. These were made available to me, and that for the first time to any writer without reservations, by Maurice A. Hutcheson, and by U.B. General Secretary Albert E. Fischer. Included are a great variety of socially and historically significant items, which shed much new light on the character and personality of our subject. The discoveries I have made therefrom will, I am confident, add much to the rounded picture of William Levi Hutcheson. Also made available to me in their entirety were the Executive Board's minutes of the Brotherhood, fortified by vital data from the "parent" American Federation of Labor. I have, of course, thoroughly examined the published proceedings of the union itself. In a year spent on research, extensive travel and scores of interviews I have profited from the generous help of more people than a brief preface can mention. I should like to single out at least those who were able to supply information to me from their long and intimate association with Hutcheson himself and their experiences in the labor movement; John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers of America ; Frank Duffy, late General Secretary Emeritus of the U. B. of C. & J. of A ; John P. Frey, President Emeritus of the A. F. of L. Metal Trades Department; Richard J. Gray, President of the A. F. of L. Building and Construction Trades Department; Matthew Woll, Vice-President of the American Federation of Labor; WilHam McSorley, President PREVIEW TO UNDERSTANDING XV of the Wood, Wire & Metal Lathers International Union; Patrick E. Gorman, General Secretary-Treasurer of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America ; Charles W. Hanson, President, N. Y. City District Council of Carpenters; Ted Kenny, Presi- dent and Daniel J. Butler, Business Representative of the Carpenters District Council of Cook, Lake and Dupage Counties in Illinois ; Peter Terzick, Editor of "The Carpenter" ; Joseph Plymate, personal secretary to the U. B. General President, and C. Marshall Goddard, Superintend- ent of the Carpenters' Home in Lakeland, Florida. I wish to express my warm thanks to all of them. For revealing insights into the life of William L. Hutcheson, I am indebted to Mrs. Bessie Hutcheson, now nearing eighty-five and residing with her children in Milan, Indiana ; Bud Hut- cheson, his youngest brother, Mrs. Minnie Bliss, his sister, and to Dr. Reverend Logan Hall of the Methodist Church of Indianapolis, In- diana. Many leaders in law, finance, industry and politics, too, cooperated by personal interviews and discussions. The writer is especially indebted to Dr. John R. Steelman, formerly assistant to President Truman, Mr. Samuel Ungerleider, Wall Street financier, Mr. Charles H. Tuttle, renowned attorney and General Counsel of the Brotherhood, Mr. Louis B. Wehle, distinguished lawyer, close confidant of President Woodrow Wilson and of Franklin D. Roosevelt and special assistant to War Secre- tary Newton D. Baker, the Hon. Arch L. Bobbitt, Supreme Court Justice, Indiana, Leon Keyserling, chairman of ex-President Truman's Council of Economic Advisers, and others in the political circles of both parties. I should like to single out at least a few of the officers of the Brotherhood who were able to supply information from their unique and rich store of experience in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America : John R. Stevenson, O. WilUam Blaier, first and second vice-presidents, respectively. I am immensely indebted to General Executive Board Members of the U.B. in the United States and Canada ; Charles Johnson Jr., Raleigh Rajoppi, Harry Schwarzer, Henry W. Chandler, R. E. Roberts, J. F. Cambiano and Andrew V. Cooper whose alert, intelligent and helpful discussions contributed immeasurably to the writer's effort. The author has profited from the help of Frank Chapman, Treasurer, and the late Abe Muir, General Executive Board Member from the Northwest Region. For general cooperation and tech- nical and statistical details, the author is indebted to the U.B. Staff in the Executive Department, librarians, archivists, technicians in the photostat section and to the union's resident legal representatives in Indianapolis. Many libraries have been of assistance — particularly the directors and staff of the Michigan Historical Society, Michigan State Library in Lansing, Michigan Historical Commission, University of Michigan in XVI PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER Ann Arbor, Historical Society of New York, the Saginaw Public Library, the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Uni- versity, New York State School of Industrial Relations, Cornell Univer- sity, the National Archives, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, the Newberry Library, the Library of the U. S. Department of Labor and the Library of Congress, Canadian Historical Association in Ottawa, the Public Archives of Canada, Chicago Historical Society, In- ternational Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland and New York, Ontario Historical Society, Methodist Historical Society and the Scots Ancestry Research in Edinburgh. Many thanks are due to Mr. Herbert Hoover, oldest living ex-President of the United States for his personal aid and cooperation, to the family of the late William Howard Taft, 26th Presi- dent of the United States and former Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court and the late Senator Robert A. Taft for permission to examine relevant papers at the National Archives of the Library of Congress. Primary and secondary sources, inclusive of newspapers and peri- odical literature, are cited in the appendix, at the end. I must also give honorable mention to Dr. I. A. Graeber, historian and sociologist, who, as the Director of Research, indefatigably collated the materials in this book and helped the author considerably with cool, dispassionate and valuable suggestions; to my devoted colleague and brother Mr. Charles Raddock, whose objectivity was most helpful. My deepest appreciation to Miss Rhoda Quasha, Lorraine Gratz, Mildred Bruchs and all other staff researchers and aids and above all, to my wife, who not only stimulated the writing of this book, but made it possible by her astonishing ability in carrying out our previous com- mitments to a community we learned to love. I shall be gratified if judicious readers agree that this work promotes not only a better understanding of the man and labor leader Hutcheson and of the Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America of which it treats, but equally of the crowded epoch of which we have all been a part. The picture painted here represents the fairest judgement I can bring to bear upon an extraordinary man and upon the turbulent times on which he left a prodigious influence. Maxwell C. Raddock Mamaroneck, New York September 25, 1955 CONTENTS Page Preview to Understanding VII PART 1 — FOREBEARS and PIONEERS Chapter I William Levi Hutcheson's Origins ..... 3 Chapter II In the Land of Timber 17 Chapter III The Beginnings of a Career ...... 56 PART II — CHALLENGE and RESPONSE Chapter IV The Leader and the Led . » 65 Chapter V The Heroic Age . . . . . • . . .80 Chapter VI Birth of Labor Equality 109 Chapter VII The Era of Disillusionment .118 PART III — WE CAN MAKE OUR OWN FUTURE Chapter VIII Alliance for Victory 129 Chapter IX The Struggle for Self -Approval 137 Chapter X Let My People Go 144 Chapter XI The Fifth Column 159 XVII PART IV — RISE of the LEVIATHAN STATE Chapter XII Page The Great Depression 169 Chapter XIII . American Standards vs. Doles . . . , ^ .176 Chapter XIV The Yawning Gulf: A. F. of L. and C. I. O. . . . 192 Chapter XV Reliance on the State 210 Chapter XVI Hutcheson Before the Bar ....... 239 PART V — MYTH or REALITY Chapter XVII The Image of America . . . , , . .253 Epilogue 329 PART VI — THE NEW and the OLD Chapter XVIII The New and the Old : Maurice A. Hutcheson . . . 339 PART VII — THE SAGA of the BROTHERHOOD Chapter XIX A Chest of Tools .355 Chapter XX Leadership in the Brotherhood ...... 388 Chapter XXI Protecting the "Job" 395 Chapter XXII The Badge of Skill , , . 406 Chapter XXIII Where Old Carpenters Go to Live . • ... .416 XVIII PART I FOREBEARS and PIONEERS CHAPTER WILLIAM LEVI HUTCHESON'S ORIGINS Among the many ethnic and cultural strains which have from our very pioneer beginnings enriched the American milieu, the "Anglo- Saxon" strain has been taken for granted. If we make this observation it is simply because the history of the British, Scottish and Welsh newcomers to America is most meaningful when played as counterpoint to the exper- iences of the great mass of immigrants of the time. Their dexterity with shuttle, pick or chisel raised British immigrants to the top of nineteenth century American trade unionism. What is not generally known, we believe, is that the Anglo-Saxon tradition particularly permeated the American labor movement.^ And our protagonist — William Levi Hutcheson — is a case in point. Even his colleague Samuel Gompers, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, Jewish by birth and faith, served his union ap- prenticeship in London, where he was bom. But it seems — though it is not pertinent here to elaborate on this generalization — that what has always distinguished trade unionism in English-speaking countries from the trade unionism which originated, say, in France or Germany, was its comparative conservatism: for whereas French or German trade unionism was grafted on to a revolutionary concept of labor organiza- tion, Anglo-Saxon (and Scandinavian) unionism consistently followed a middle of the road course, as it were, and confined itself to the funda- mental function of the trade union — namely, the preservation of workers' rights and privileges and to a reconstruction of the industrial relationship away from a paternalistic benevolent dictatorship toward a more equalitarian democracy. American soil at the end of the nineteenth century somehow gave rise to American craft unionism, which followed the pattern of organization that had succeeded in England. IRowland T. Berthoff, British Immigrants in Industrial America (Harvard Univearsity Press, 1953), pp. 88-106. 3 4 PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER Be this as it may, William Levi Hutcheson's antecedents were workers under the British crown, poor as only Englishmen, the Scotch and the Irish could be — and resenting it as Englishmen can resent sordid poverty ; that is to say, by getting out — as their Jamestown and Ply- mouth kinsmen had done two centuries earlier when they found that the emasculated British Isles could no longer sustain them and that the grass was more fertile across the Atlantic. This is what the British, Scotch and Irish did, and this is what Bill Hutcheson's forebears did. Though the family finally wound up in Saginaw, Michigan, their per- egrinations began back in Ulster County in Northern Ireland. You might describe this extensive and circuitous pilgrimage of the Hutcheson breed as a typical migrant exodus from an improverished Europe. But it was indeed more than that, for that giant of a man who was sprung from the vigorous loins of that prospecting family, and who was later to become an articulate and controversial leader of millions of American wage-earners, was always conscious of his origins — and never forgot the starvation and pestilence which forever haunted his childhood. Before, therefore, we get on with the public life of William Levi Hutcheson — or "Big Bill Hutch," as he was fondly called, it might be interesting to devote some deserving pages to the humble folk whose name he eventually brought to public attention or, as many think, glorified by his indefatigable "paternal" championing of the cause of the "craft" worker. Thus, our story really begins a century and a quarter ago — on January 7th, 1825, to be precise. It was Thursday when the boat, not much larger than a two-masted brig, sailed out of the Clyde with its human cargo bidding an uncertain and fearful farewell to the Old World. Early that Sunday it had taken its last batch of passengers at Lough Foyle, Ireland. Emigrants all, the company was now complete, drawing together for human companionship on the deck — Scots, Irish, Ulster- men, Welsh — men, women and children. For six weeks, they were told, their whole universe would be this small wooden vessel. The captain, hungry for profit, had exploited every possible nook for improvised bunks, leaving little room for provisions or even an adequate supply of water. Cooped up in the ship's hole, these ill-fed and ill-clothed "pioneers" re- signed themselves to the North Atlantic gales which numbed them in- to "ship fever" insensibility. Down there in steerage no one escaped the ravages of the winter crossing. But they were a hardy lot — most of them under thirty, and even the younger ones were already married and encumbered with families. Steer- age 4, for example, sheltered the young, attractive widow, Mary Camp- bell Hutcheson, barely twenty-seven, and her two tots, Daniel and David. Like most of the unmarried, poor Irish girls who dreamed of WILLIAM LEVI HUTGHESON*S ORIGINS 5 finding work in the States as domestics, Mary was bracing herself to assume a similar role — the only one to which she could profitably adapt herself. For the most part, they were a quiet, orderly, well-mannered group of emigrants deriving from poor worker families, the unem- ployed and the idle by economic compulsion, dispossessed crofters, skilled artisans of all types, rural and urban laborers and, of course, some ambi- tious and competitive individuals who aspired to making fortunes in the new land of opportunity. Widow Hutcheson had no such ambitions. Her primary hope was that of finding a home for her orphaned sons. As noted above, these men and women had sailed from their respective British homes at the beginning of the nineteenth century — as their kinsmen a century or two before had done before they settled Massachu- setts Bay Colony and environs. The present crop did not venture forth, you might say, to a strange and unfriendly land whose language and customs were alien to them. For though America had already emerged from the status of British colonialism, most "native" Americans were British descended, scattered through all the colonies, including Welshmen who had peopled William Penn's province and Scots and Ulstermen who had pushed the frontier across the Appalachians. At the dawn of the eighteenth century, 60 per cent of the white population was of English and Welsh stock, 8 per cent Scottish, and 6 per cent Scotch-Irish, while less than 4 per cent was Southern Irish. Of course, these Americans, having been settled for a century and a half in the New World, were no longer "pure" Englishmen, Welshmen, Scots, or Irishmen like the first English settlers. Furthermore, with immigra- tion entirely blocked by the Napoleonic War, the next generation grew up indigenously American.^ After 1815, and on through the 'seventies, immigrant officials counted some three and a half million men and women arriving from the United Kingdom to the United States.^ It was the largest movement of population from a nation which pioneered the Industrial Revolution, whose powerful industrial forces were soon to be released in the New World at a pace no country had since matched. Statistical vagaries notwithstanding, more Englishmen, Scots, Welshmen, Ulstermen and Irishmen came to America during the nineteenth century than had come during the preceding two cen- turies. It was not at all accidental that they came to the United States in that period and immediately found work in certain manufacturing cities, in industries and mining camps. Their talents, skills and experiences 2Marcus Lee Hansen, The Atlantic Migration (Harvard University Press, 1941), pp. 72-76. 3U.S. Commissioner-General of Immigration, Report, 1930, pp. 202-203; Bureau of the Census Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1951, p. 94. 6 PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER were suited for a virgin, untapped, rich and burgeoning continent. America offered myriads of jobs at wages unmatched in the already crowded labor market of Britain. A man who deserved a good job in America hoped to earn a fatter pay packet and rise further and faster in a constantly changing, fluid, creative American society. If he could not become an Andrew Carnegie, like the fabulous British-born iron- master, there was room enough on the lower rungs of the industrial ladder. Rise or not, a man could sooner dine at a fuller table. "In Amer- ica," gloated the English workingmen, "you can get pies and puddings !" After two hundred years of emigration, the Englishman had more friends and relatives in America than in Yorkshire, Sheffield or Glasgow to post him on current conditions. Few British towns and villages did not know the States through the letters of their "Yankee" sons and daugh- ters. Few of the stay-at-homes had not themselves thought of shaking the old-country dust from their worn-down heels. The very name of America conjured up for Europeans a bright if hazy vision of a promised land. There was a charm connected with the word "America" which silenced the most ordinary dictates of caution. A sensible man would cross the Atlantic with less anxiety about his prospects than he would have had if he contemplated removal, say, from Kent to Yorkshire. Thus, since 1607 men and women had been led to abandon the Old World for the New. From time to time political or religious oppression had also driven true believers to seek a land more tolerant, at least of their particular heresies. Others had been forcibly transported to America as convicts or slaves. Taxpayers had cheaply disposed of paupers by paying for their ocean voyage. Many fled outright oppression at home. And of course there have been nearly as many personal motives for emigration as there have been emigrants. Throughout three centuries however, humdrum economic circumstances and forces probably moved most of the venturers. All sought their share in the promise of a better life through emigration. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, when Mary had arrived, laboring men throughout Great Britain had sustained a prolonged and crushing series of blows. Depression in British trade drove out swarms of skilled artisans, farmers and peasants. Crises in agriculture, and the inauguration of scientific high-farming had upset English, Welsh and Scottish rural society. In the Highland glens recur- rent potato shortages uprooted crofters. In overpopulated Ireland, the chronic potato blight now attained famine proportions — goading 54,338 in one year to flee across the ocean. Cholera, typhus and famine gave Ireland the highest mortality in Western Christendom, with less than one fifth of the population barely reaching the age of forty. Whole blocks of houses stood deserted in England's industrial cities, their cellar WILLIAM LEVI HUTGHESON'S ORIGINS 7 doors removed for firewood. Thousands of homeless men loitered at street corners, with their idle chests of tools at their feet. Factories were padlocked, and "unwanted" girls were starving. This, then, was the human stuff embarking on the Clyde — a company of the rejected, hungry, weak and prodigal ; in short, all who had been unable to pre- vail against circumstances in their own land and were therefore now fleeing to another. Mary Campbell Hutcheson, with the responsibility of a tiny family on her youthful shoulders, rendered helpless by the lash of economic need, was escaping virtual destitution. The typhoid epidemic and famine which struck Ulster and environs the year before, claimed her 29 year old husband Daniel, leaving her two young children fatherless. Little Daniel, now 4 years old, took to sailing like a tar, but his nine- year old brother David and his mother, too, lay sick and prostrate in steerage as the decrepit vessel jumped on the sea like a catboat. Unfortunately for Mary and the children, they were not included among the lucky ones who were sent to Canada by private or state aid. Wealthy benefactresses and private philanthropists had assisted slum dwellers and destitute Highlanders to the sparsely populated colonies, particularly Canada. The British government, even before its revival of interest in the Empire, had been experimenting with a rehabilitation project of placing its unemployed and displaced agricultural workers in Canada. Land and equipment would be provided for them upon arrival, but the expense of passage had to be borne by the emigrants. The British sent hundreds of such destitute crofters and workers and planted them in the colonies north of Lake Erie. Hordes of Irish paupers and crofters were thus driven to Canada during that particular decade. As a widow, Mary was not qualified for the official bounty, A loan of a few pence would have enabled her to sail to London, where private charitable societies staked stranded families to three to five pounds for cabin passage. There was the Emigrant Aid Society of London, which held out the hope of passage to British North America and the New World on winnings from lotteries conducted for the benefit of the poor. But to obtain a direct loan or outright gift of charity on which to reach London was, for any one of Houston's twenty-five families, im- possible. The town of Houston, with a population of one hundred and fifty, was typical of the many that had been reduced to the level of pau- pery,4 and widow Hutcheson had no one to turn to back home. It had been a year since Mary had written to her husband's rich Uncle Edwin, in Brighton, Canada, requesting passage for herself and the kids. Many poor Irish and Scotch-Irish often depended on such ^William F. Adams, Ireland and Irish Immigration to the New World (Yale Uni- versity Press, 1932), pp. 64-65. 8 PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER help from successful relatives or friends in Canada and America.^ It was quite common in those days for groups of thirty or forty, some- times an entire village, to sail together when their emigrant relatives and friends could contribute enough for a combined voyage.^ Hope for Mary was held out by the Gamble family, whose nearby residence was a turf hut without windows which had been shared by the six little Gambles, father, mother, and the pigs. They had sailed the previous June to Quebec on passage money provided by their cousin in Canada, promising to look up Mary's uncle Edwin on their arrival. And, indeed, Jessica Gamble had not forgotten! For on October 24, 1824, Mary was happily reading to her children Uncle Edwin's letter: "Dear Mary, "I think you was better get a little from the parish and set out for Canada while you have a chance to. If you don't come soon it is likely you will starve, and if you find a bite to eat your children won't, whilst if you was to come hither with David and Daniel, anyone would be glad to take one or even both and keep them as their own kind until coming of age, and give them 100 acres of land and give stock besides. I was agreeably surprised when I come here to see what a fine land it be. It be excellent land, which bear crops of wheat and com for twenty years without dung. Here you will dwell in our home and help on the farm and cook. You can make soap, candles, sugar, treacle and vinegar. I am happy with the country and so is Kate, as we are so much respected here as any one of our neighbors, and so would you. "You had better now set out for a vessel and make sure you have ascer- tained correct date of sailing. And then arrange the date on which you em- . bark. This will avoid the costs of lodgings, and also of spending a big amount of money in public houses. The Captains and Agents always ask more money from a lone woman with children. But I have already booked you to Quebec. Remember, Mary, there must be on board fifty gallons of pure water and fifty pounds of bread, biscuit, oatmeal, for each passenger. A few medicines for the voyage will be necessary, especially the purgative kind, as a sea voyage is certain to produce costiveness. The medicines that Kate says you must take are Epsom Salts, a box of blue pills, castor oil, emetics made up in doses, rhubarb, and a litde fever medicine. Take also an ounce bottle of sulphate of quinine which you will find a certain cure for the ague, if you should meet with it. And now having given you all the necessary cautions, I will take leave, me and Kate wishing you and the children health and a pleasant voyage, when we will be ready to embrace you with affection. Uncle Edwin" Two nights of the steerage had filled Mary, Daniel and David with horror. Their sleeping quarters were unsuitable, mother and children occupying but one bed with about fifteen inches of canvas to sleep on. The stench of so many human beings cooped up in these narrow confines 5"Third Report from the Select Committee on Emigration from the United King- dom," Parliamentary Papers, 1826-7, V (550) (s2240) ; Scottish- American Jour- nal, May 4, 1867, WILLIAM LEVI HUTGHESON'S ORIGINS 9 without ventilation added to the general malaise. Meals were unbear- able, even for healthy folk. The stinted portions of bread, porridge and soup evoked outcries from the passengers — "disgusting," "unfit to be set before human beings or even pigs." The only food Mary and her boat companions cared for was oatmeal, which could not spoil or turn rancid. Friendly seamen brought extra rations for Daniel and David, while Mary lived almost entirely on biscuit and oatmeal. Others among the passengers, who fortunately had their own provisions, occa- sionally shared them with the widow and her children. Saturday night afforded Mary some pleasant hours. From steerage appeared fiddlers, and a native Welsh chorus. Hornpipe, reel and song helped those sober English, Scottish and Irish workmen pass the tedium of a rough winter crossing. Recitations were spiritedly rendered in Scottish brogue and quadrilles were danced to the music of the screeching fiddles. The impulse to sing was strong, and on rough nights the passengers gathered by the main deck-house, in a place sheltered from the wind and rain, the women clinging to ladders which led to the hurricane deck, or linking arms to make a ring against the violent lurching of the ship. They sang to their hearts content. The doggerel was the familiar music- hall fare of the day, of course, — like, "Go, someone, and tell him from me, to write a letter from home," a popular ballad of the day. Mary contributed her favorite, "My Name is Mary Leary, From a spot called Tipperary, The hearts of all the lads I'm a'thornin'; But before the break of morn, Faith! 'tis they'll be all forlorn, For I'm off to Philadelphia in the mornin*. Wid my bundle on my shoulder, Faith! There's no lass could be bolder; I'm lavin dear old Ireland without warnin*. For I lately took the notion, For to cross the briny ocean. And I start for Philadelphia in the mornin\" Sabbath was piously observed by everyone. Like most humble British folk, they were a God-fearing lot in the main. It was on a quiet, holy Sunday — the eighth Lord's Day on board — that the cheering out- lines of the coast of Quebec were sighted. Mary Campbell Hutcheson's belongings were of course few, and what she possessed consisted of a square box with ropes tied about it and two packages done up in coarse homespun canvas, plus a string of kitchen ware. She was met by the agent of the Quebec Aid Society, a middle-aged Scotsman, whose practiced demonstration of paternalism 10 PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER and characteristic superciliousness of the "native" towards new arrivals, were in fact a conscious attempt to discourage pauper immigrants from remaining in the port. The fact that he had once been a destitute Highland crofter, who only a decade ago had himself arrived from the United Kingdom to seek virgin soil in the Maritime Provinces and Lower Canada, only served to increase his arrogance. A quick look at Mary, however, and her two young children, changed his attitude, it seemed. For Mary and her children, apparently, belonged to that class of pauper immigrants upon whom immigration commissioners and welfare agencies somehow did not frown. Unattached and young, and with two young male children, she was regarded with favor as a welcome addition to a sparsely populated, loyal British outpost. Others, mostly middle-aged poor Irish crofters, seemed like a burden too large to handle for the colonial officials. Mary was asked to await the arrival of her benefactor, Uncle Edwin, who would take her under his legal protection and shelter her in Brighton. In the meantime, she and her tots were given food and lodging by kindly women volunteers attached to the above-mentioned Aid Society. * * * Three hundred and fifty miles inland, north of Lake Ontario and Presque Isle Harbor, lay the village of Brighton, in the Newcastle dis- trict. It was a comparatively calm community. Occasional grumblings and battle cries on the part of its settlers against the "British yoke" had effected little change in its brief history of three decades since its origi- nal settlement early in the nineteenth century. The tempo of Brighton, as was typical of so many other surrounding pioneer communities, was geared to survival rather than to speed. In the 'thirties and 'forties, when bustling villages and rising cities sprang to life a short distance across the channel, Brighton moved at a well-regulated pace and with monotonous regularity. And Uncle Edwin, an early settler, kept slow pace with the tempo of his adopted habitat. Not unlike the towns of Port Hope, Bowmanville, Newcastle, Graf- ton and Trent, which varied in ethnic inheritance from province to province and township to township, Brighton reflected the ethnic com- position of its settlers. These were mostly Scotch tenant farmers and Scotch-Irish landless agricultural workers, Methodist and Presbyterian, who, uprooted from their native glens by agrarian reorganization in the early nineteenth century, had sailed to a broader and freer Canada in search of fresh soil. Not much later, a few families drifted in because they had friends and relatives in Brighton. It was an accepted practice of the Methodists to assist relatives in getting established, and no one ex- WILLIAM LEVI HUTCHESON'S ORIGINS 11 pected praise for doing so. Homes and resources were shared with the newcomers as a matter of course. Initial material aid in the form of housing, clothing, equipment, as well as gratuitous advice and suggestions, were given these "green-horns" without any show of generosity. Mutual aid was one of the laudable, fundamental characteristics of the Methodist community of Brighton. A farming community, Brighton, on Mary's arrival, had a popula- tion of approximately 250. Its child population was rather high, four to five children per family being the rule. Although sanctimoniously denied, there was a strong tendency to prize male children more highly than female children. Males would prove an economic asset to parents. The township was well settled by 1825, its farms all cleared and in a good state of cultivation. Large quantities of wheat and other grain, all of excellent quality, were raised. The old log shanties and cob-roofed farms had been displaced by frame buildings, with orchards attached. The delay in building a traversable road was a constant source of grievance and dissatisfaction to the settlers, as was the small allotment for educating the young. In fact, Brighton offered no edu- cation to its children. Its monitorial system, by which one teacher, him- self a mere initiate in the 3 R's, taught the lesson to the elder pupils, had proved ineffective. The pupils he was trying to teach would fre- quently absent themselves in the winter and help their fathers on the farm in the summer. The community's early education of its young, therefore, fell upon the mothers who taught them the rudiments of English reading, writing and arithmetic. Still, the greater part of Brighton's population was Hterate. Most of them could read and write. While their schooling might have been rudi- mentary, the more vigourous nonconformist Methodist Sunday Schools instructed both child and great-grandmother in the reading of Scripture. Brighton had one Methodist congregation. In the early years, when almost everyone was poor and families, struggling on bare subsist- ence levels, church services had been held east of Murray Township at the "oak plains". Five years later, the village church was completed by the cooperative participation of its parishioners, who, after eleven or more hours of labor in the fields, had spent their evenings renovating the church. The more the structure, interior and ritual resembled those of the "good Methodees" in England, the more fond of church did they become. Here, there was no class distinction. Economic tensions relaxed in time, and the children of the settlers grew to manhood and woman- hood, and no discernible anxiety or worry over "social status" bothered them. Nobody looked down upon a newcomer. Uncle Edwin had written the truth to Mary when he boasted of how he was "respected here as anyone of our neighbors." 12 PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER Mary Campbell Hutcheson was not baffled by her new environment. In many ways, Brighton seemed like the village of Houston, Ulster, where she came from. Her life and that of her children would, it seemed, be pleasant. Food was plentiful! With nine people to cook for, Mary cheerfully assumed her role of housekeeper in Uncle Edwin's household "until the children grow up." Edwin Hutcheson was in affluent circumstances, with a ratable prop- erty of $8,000 inclusive of milch cows, oxen and homed cattle. His wife Kate, though hardly turned forty, bore signs of hard labor and looked much older than her years. She and Edwin were now regarded as among the "early settlers." Her habits of energetic industry and familiarity with privation gave Kate a hard, stem mien. She had been wife, mother and co-worker for twenty years. Two of the older sons were now married in Chicago, where they had settled two years ago. Both had chosen grain merchandising as their occupation. The two remaining children were still home, performing all sorts of chores re- quired for running a successful farm. Mary's arrival afforded Aunt Kate more leisure than she had known since her marriage, and Mary learned to get along with her aunt despite the burden placed on her. It wasn't difficult to administer the household. But the possibility of marrying again was far more desirable to the young widow. There was indeed one prospect — a local widower, with four young orphans, in the neighboring village of Coburg, a distance of twenty-six miles from Brighton. Until then, however, Mary ungrumblingly did her cooking over the primitive fire made against a log, hanging kettles upon iron hooks to swing over the flames. The roasted potatoes were made by covering them with hot ashes and coals, and she did her baking by setting a tin oven before the fire with the open side toward the fire. She was quite skilled with her fingers. Her crocheted doilies, afghans and other pro- ducts of her nimble fingers pleased her aunt. Knitting stockings and mit- tens for Uncle Edwin and the boys occupied Mary's long winter evenings. Mary even found time to teach David and Daniel the rudiments of the 3 R's during the winter months. In the one-room house which she occupied with the children, she would tell them grim stories woven out of her own experiences in Ulster. She told them of the famines and privations that the people in her native village underwent; and of the many children that went hungry "departing into heaven," never to return again. She told them of their own father David, who died of an in- curable disease, "taking a long journey to heaven." Daniel hardly remembered his father, who had died when the boy was three. In the summer, Daniel would help his brother cut hay with a scythe and wheat with a grain cradle. Though he became particularly fond of log-splitting and was quite handy in the use of the axe, Daniel had WILLIAM LEVI HUTCHESON'S ORIGINS 13 little interest in farming. He dreamed of the big city across the contin- ental boundary. . . . The Sabbath provided all the emotional fervor for Brighton's inhabi- tants. The Sunday School and the Bible Society supplemented the edu- cation of young and adult alike. Preparations for Sunday would begin from Saturday noon. It was expected as a matter of course that the whole family would attend church, getting an early start in the morning. There were no cushion seats, no pews, and no foot stools, and the restless feet of children dangled from the benches as they listened to the long and tiresome sermons and lengthy prayers of the Reverend Thomas Ward. Without an organ, communal singing at worship was the common prac- tice. The congregational hymn-singing must have left an indelible im- pression on Daniel's mind, for years later he kept up the practice of reciting and chanting the psalms and snatches of Scripture for his Ameri- can-born children. Sunday was the day for leisure and recreation. Visiting friends, neighbors and relations was the thing to do. The twelfth of July, the anniversary of William of Orange's victory at the Boyne, offered an opportunity for celebration as did of course Halloween and Christmas. Picnics and excursions on the lake were not uncommon. "Surprise parties," where ten or twelve families suddenly descended upon the home of friends were a popular version of visiting in these rural commun- ities. Pairing and quilting and domestic bees were particularly enjoyed. In addition, there were always benefit entertainments, dances and parties, occasions that they used to raise money for indigent friends and relatives in the Old World. The men, on the other hand, frequently had occasion to visit the town, and their contact with the local officials, the merchants, and trades- men was not only practical, but lessened the monotony of their existence. They also engaged from time to time in hunting and fishing, attended bees, fairs, horse races and, occasionally, a traveling circus from the States. There were the inevitable taverns and English-style "pubs," of which Brighton had two. Bees were the most popular form of amusement in Brighton. Every settler would invariably hold two or three each year, provided he could furnish a good "pot pie," and plenty of grog, and never take objec- tion to his guests' fighting. Feats of prowess, such as putting the stone and hurling the hammer, axemanship and skill in handling recal- citrant oxen or horses provided amusement for the young people at the contests. They spent the evening in dancing, while the older men and women concluded their day's work by discussing crops, prices, local politics and such news as had come from the Old World. Scotch and Irish reels, four-hand and eight-hand reels were the universal favorites. 14 PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN LABOR LEADER Above the noise of the dancing could be heard the scraping sound of the fiddle, and the voice of the caller as he shouted "Salute your partner," "Promenade aU," or "Grand chain." Rural balls were the most attractive of amusements, and Mary some- how found time to put in an appearance. People would travel many miles through the bush to take part in them. A species of amusement once very common, and still to be found in some parts of Ontario, was the "charivari" or "chivari." It was typical of weddings that involved a match between a couple of a disproportionately unequal age, or in second marriages. The "chivari" party would appear at the home of the newlyweds, usually after midnight, with horse bells, "bull roarers," tin pans and copper kettles and surprise the bride and groom. If the bridegroom did not emerge and supply another round of drinks, the ear- splitting catcalls would continue the rest of the night. Halloween was another festival religiously observed. It was celebrated in traditional style with a blazing fire in the open grate, and on the fire a huge pot full of potatoes, and round the fire a "wheen" — lads and lasses trying their fortunes by putting nuts on the live coals, with the younger members of the family "dookin" for apples in the dimly lighted background. On Christmas Eve, all Brighton went midnight caroling through the village. Two local stores offered settlers "your Christmas beef and goose" and "the genuine English plum puddings", and the owners decked their stores with boughs. The church was trimmed by the children under the watchful glare of the parents. The "Minister's Party" was another celebration which, while social was identified with the church. At this party he received useful gifts and some duplicates of things he already had. Not infrequently these offerings were articles which the owner was glad to part with and so passed them on to the minister. The latter's salary was notoriously small and these gifts were presented to him in order to supplement his meager wage. The commu- nity was served with a supper, all of which was contributed by those at- tending the party, each one bringing whatever he wished. There were few marriages in Brighton, although spinsterhood and bachelorhood were frowned upon in the community. A girl unmarried by twenty-five was considered an old maid and at thirty she was beyond connubial salvation. Brighton had about thirty "old-maids," a con- dition which was of course a source of great anxiety to the parents. There were no bachelors, except for a few widowed farmers for whom there was an increasing demand. Brighton was a village without young men. All of them, on reaching maturity, would hop over in the Spring into the United States, where the vista was broader and oppor- tunity greater. In the few marriages that had taken place, the disparity IRELAND Showing County Hounolaric- and Principal an.! ^i:\